Employee benefits include the choice between multiple health care plans, life and long term disability insurance, dental insurance, paid leave, tuition discounts and more.
Please see below for more detailed information on each of the benefits available to you.
Watch the video below to learn how to register with MYGICLink for health benefits.
The Group Insurance Commission offers life insurance, long-term disability coverage, flexible spending, and 8 different health insurance plans to benefit-eligible employees. Plans are chosen upon hire and may be changed during the annual open enrollment period. For newly hired employees, coverage is effective on the first of the month, following 60 days of employment.
Benefit-eligible employees may also be eligible to utilize Flexible Spending to pay for medical and/or child care expenses on a pre-tax basis. Annual enrollment occurs during open enrollment every April - May.
- MetLife Dental/Vision Savings Home Page
- MetLife Dental MyBenefits Login (APA/MSCA Company Name is MTA Higher Education Health & Welfare Fund. Non-Unit Company Name is DHE Non-Unit)
- Health Plans, Inc. (APA/MSCA Plan Administrator/Non-Unit Plan Administrator)
- MPE Fund Dental/Vision (AFSCME)
- State Board of Retirement (All benefited employees)
- Optional Retirement Program (All benefited employees except Classified unit)
Please note that employees who are retiring from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts may be eligible to take advantage of the supplemental retirement plans to defer their sick and vacation buyouts. Please contact Human Resources for more information.
Peter Tziachris | Retirement Plan Advisor
Massachusetts SMART Plan
Empower
Investment Advisor Representative, Advised Assets Group, LLC
Registered Representative, GWFS Equities, Inc.
255 Bear Hill Road Waltham, MA 02451
Plan Support: 877.457.1900 | Direct: 774.265.4090 | Fax: 781.890.2919
peter.tziachris@empower.com | mass-smart.com
Important disclosures and product information
Fidelity
Matthew Toedt
508.450.4284
matthew.toedt@fmr.com
Corebridge Financial
Jim Kaufmann
Financial Advisor
410 Amherst Street, Suite 310
Nashua, NH 03063
Office 603.594.8340 | Cell 413.270.0170 | Fax 413.358.4866
james.kaufmann@corebridgefinancial.com | corebridgefinancial.com
TIAA-CREF
TIAA is now offering one-on-one consultations through an updated Meeting Scheduler link below which allows meetings to be reserved up to 45 days in advance. Participants can select from an abundance of available meeting times and are no longer restricted to meeting virtually on specific days.
To schedule time with one of our TIAA financial consultants, visit www.tiaa.org/schedulenow to set up a meeting or call 800-732-8353 weekdays from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. (ET)
- Josh Lawrence
Financial Consultant - Mark Bertonazzi
Sr. Financial Consultant - Ron Bruncaj
Financial Consultant - Thomas Garcia-Meitin
Financial Consultant
The Massachusetts 403(b) Supplemental Retirement Plan supplements benefits of the state’s core retirement plans, and can be an important component of your personal savings for retirement. It is intended to operate under Internal Revenue Code Section 403(b) and is subject to the fiduciary standards described in Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 32, Section 23(3).
Contributions
The plan accepts only your own voluntary Employee Contributions, which can be made on either a before-tax or after-tax basis. The Commonwealth does not contribute to the plan. Please visit their webpage for more information.
All benefit-eligible employees are entitled to purchase various insurance coverage(s) including short term disability through AFLAC and pay for their premiums through payroll deductions. Stop by Human Resources for more information or contact AFLAC Representative Scudder K. Sinclair at 617.768.7669. Email: scuddermembershipbenefits@gmail.com.
Benefited, state employees may be entitled to accrue sick, personal, and vacation leave. The amount and type of leave accrued and is based upon the language in the corresponding collective bargaining agreement.
The FMLA entitles eligible employees of covered employers to take unpaid, job-protected leave for specified family and medical reasons with continuation of group health insurance coverage under the same terms and conditions as if the employee had not taken leave. Eligible employees are entitled to:
- Twelve workweeks of leave in a 12-month period for:
- the birth of a child and to care for the newborn child within one year of birth;
- the placement with the employee of a child for adoption or foster care and to care for the newly placed child within one year of placement;
- to care for the employee’s spouse, child, or parent who has a serious health condition;
- a serious health condition that makes the employee unable to perform the essential functions of his or her job;
- any qualifying exigency arising out of the fact that the employee’s spouse, son, daughter, or parent is a covered military member on “covered active duty;” or
- Twenty-six workweeks of leave during a single 12-month period to care for a covered service member with a serious injury or illness if the eligible employee is the service member's spouse, son, daughter, parent, or next of kin (military caregiver leave).
- U.S. Department of Labor Guide to FMLA
- FMLA Poster
Employees may also be eligible for unpaid time off. The amount and type of time off varies by the employee’s collective bargaining agreement. Employees should reference their collective bargaining agreement for clarification or additional leave types not referenced here.
Paid Family and Medical Leave, or PFML, is a benefit program for Massachusetts workers offered by the Commonwealth. Through PFML, if you work in Massachusetts you’re likely eligible to take up to 26 weeks per year of paid, job-protected time off from work when you need it most, so that you can focus on your health and the health of your family.
Most Massachusetts employees are eligible for up to 26 weeks of combined family and medical leave per benefit year. You can take leave for a qualifying reason. A qualifying reason is the cause or event that makes you unable to work and eligible for Paid Family and Medical Leave benefits.
Qualifying reasons are:
- Caring for your own serious health condition as certified by a healthcare provider, including illness, injury, or pregnancy/childbirth (up to 20 weeks of paid medical leave)
- Caring for a family member with a serious health condition as certified by a healthcare provider, including illness, injury, or pregnancy/childbirth (up to 12 weeks of paid family leave)
- Bonding with your child during the first 12 months after birth, adoption, or placement (up to 12 weeks of paid family leave)
- Caring for a family member who was injured serving in the armed forces (up to 26 weeks of paid family leave)
- Managing affairs while a family member is on active duty (up to 12 weeks of paid family leave)
A benefit year is 52 weeks starting on the Sunday prior to the first day of paid leave through any leave program. You can take more than one kind of leave in a benefit year, but the maximum amount of paid leave you can take in a benefit year is 26 weeks.
Employees applying for PFML should complete the request form and meet with Human Resources for additional information.
PFML Website
PFML Employee Toolkit
PFML Poster
***All leaves run concurrently.
Benefited, state employees are entitled to 12 holidays each year. Faculty are entitled to those holidays which fall within the academic year. Holidays are paid within the constraints of each respective collective bargaining agreement. If any employee is absent without pay for a fraction of a day immediately before or after a holiday, that employee is not entitled to receive pay for that holiday. The state holiday calendar is located on our payroll information page.
What is SERV? SERV (State Employees Responding as Volunteers Program) gives state employees the opportunity to provide volunteer services to assist in the improvement of the community at accredited non-profit organizations and public entities (including schools).
Employees who have been successfully employed by the state for at least six (6) months may volunteer up to one day per month (7.5 or 8.0 hours) for approved activities; part-time employees are eligible to participate in the program on a prorated basis. Seasonal, intermittent, and contract employees are not eligible.
Benefits eligible state employee, the employee’s spouse, and the employee’s dependent children are eligible after 6 months of employment (one semester for faculty) for tuition remission benefits at any Massachusetts community college, state college, or state university, excluding the M.D. Program at UMASS Medical School*.
Only tuition charges are waived or reduced. Fees must be paid in full. However, Fitchburg State University waives most fees for a Fitchburg State benefitted state employee who attends Fitchburg State; the employee would be responsible for certain fees and any costs associated with travel (i.e. Study Tours or Field Components).
The percentage waived applies to both undergraduate and graduate courses at Fitchburg State. Accelerated graduate program fees are not eligible to be waived at 100%; those fees are waived at 50%.
Some variations on the tuition remission policy exist for unit employees and are described in each of the respective collective bargaining agreements. The collective bargaining agreements are available on the collective bargaining webpage.
*UMass' tuition structure was changed dramatically as a result of the passage of the UMass tuition retention legislation, Chapter 46 of the Acts of 2015 in July 2015.
The law allows UMass to retain tuition for the operation of the university rather than pay the monies to the Commonwealth. The statute also requires that tuition and student charges be more transparent and understood. Due to the change in statute, UMass restructured its student cost structure. Tuition increased and fees decreased. The major change was the rolling over of the former "curriculum fee" into tuition. This increased the average tuition by $10,000.00.
The Tuition Retention legislation required that all tuition waiver programs currently offered and/or honored by UMass, including those in collective bargaining agreements, become tuition credit programs of approximately the same value. The tuition credits now offered by UMass to state employees approximately equal the amounts of the former "tuition waivers." Thus no state employee is receiving anything less than what they received under the tuition waiver programs. For example, the former tuition waiver for UMass Amherst now becomes a $1,714.00 tuition credit.
In light of the statute's mandate and UMass' implementation of 'tuition credits", the Board of Higher Education, in May 2016, voted to change all UMass tuition waivers under its jurisdiction/authority to "tuition credits" effective July 1, 2016.
Definition of Dependent Child
A dependent child of any eligible employee is defined in the tuition remission policy for higher education employees as any natural, adopted or stepchild who is claimed as a dependent on the eligible employee's Federal Tax Return for the tax year immediately preceding enrollment.
No employee’s child beyond the age of twenty-five (25) shall be eligible for tuition remission; provided, however, that in exceptional circumstances and for good reason the President of the public college or university granting the tuition remission may waive this age limitation for an employee’s child who continues to meet the IRS standards of dependency.
The above definition of dependent child does not limit or preclude any tuition remission benefits currently enjoyed by higher education employees under the terms of applicable collective bargaining agreements or personnel policies. The current APA and MSCA contracts do not indicate an age limitation.
Important Registration Information
Before you register, check with the institution’s Student Accounts office, course catalog, or website to learn the terms under which the institution will accept the waiver and what costs will be covered. Waiver procedures and processes can vary from campus to campus and between separate business units of the same campus. You may miss the opportunity to use the tuition remission benefit if you fail to follow the waiver policy of the institution you wish to attend.
Do not assume that the tuition remission form can be submitted at any time, such as after the student has already enrolled. Many campuses do not allow you to submit the form retroactively. Most business or student accounts offices require that the authorized form is presented prior to or along with the registration or semester bill. Your method of registration (in-person, mail, FAX, phone, online) might be restricted when using a waiver.
Authorized forms are required for each:
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Student - Families with multiple dependents attending classes must complete a form for every student, even if all are attending the same institution.
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Semester - Spring, Fall, Winter Intersession and Summer Session, even if students are continuously enrolled in a matriculated degree program.
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Program - Divisions of Continuing Education are most often operated as distinct self-sustaining business units on a campus and accept tuition remission waivers only on a space-available basis. Accelerated graduate program fees are waived at 50%.
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Institution - Students attending multiple schools at the same time need a form for each. This will involve working with two different business or bursar offices. Enrollments for online courses through UMass Online are individually subject to the regulations of the home campus that listed the course.
Tuition Remission Forms
Tuition remission forms are available on our HR and Payroll Forms page.
For classes at Fitchburg State, you must complete the dynamic form. The dynamic form is electronic and will route approvals through that process. Student Accounts will receive the final dynamic form for processing.
For any other school, please use the hard copy. After completing a hard copy form and your department head has signed it, the form should be submitted to the Office of Human Resources for signing. The waiver will be returned to you.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the workers' compensation insurer for all state employees. Workers' compensation insurance pays for medical expenses associated with job-related injuries and may also provide a weekly income if you are unable to work due to such an injury for five (5) calendar days or more.
Reporting a Work-Related Injury or Illness
All work-related injuries, serious or otherwise, must be reported to your immediate supervisor and to Human Resources on the day it occurs. The supervisor, first responder, or authorized individual arranges for any immediate medical attention required and provides the employee with an Injured Employee Workers' Compensation Packet. The employee will provide portions of this packet to the treating medical provider.
Within 48 hours of the injury, the supervisor and employee must make sure the Notice of Injury report has been filed with Human Resources accompanied by the Authorization for Release of Medical Records. Human Resources will open a claim. The claim number and assigned adjuster will be provided to the injured employee as confirmation that the claim was filed and if ongoing claim administration is required.
Medical Treatment or Time Away from Work
If the injury requires medical attention and/or the time away from work is five (5) or more calendar days, please review and/or download the following injury related documentation:
● Injured Employee Workers' Compensation Packet (PDF)
Contact Information
Human Resources - 978.665.3172
Email for assistance - humanresources@fitchburgstate.edu